This is an interlude, or a side quest type story to DBZ - Piccolo, Gohan and Goku cross paths with the Seer who once aided King Piccolo centuries ago.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z or any of its characters, or anything really.
In the Rose Garden
Soft, crimson petals curled round in the shape of a rose and feathery thorns swam among them, but if they really were roses, it was difficult to tell. They lined either side of the walkway and almost obscured the harsh sunlight above. They looked welcoming and yet, Goku knew that it there was no welcome, not with creatures such as these. Soil moved beneath his foot, loose and dry, providing no nourishment for any wildlife, thorny or not. His son was as astonished by the lack lustre display. Gohan was a grown man but still, he reached out a pale hand to try and caress one of the rose petals. His wrist was stopped, abruptly, by jade the fingers wrapped around it.
"Don't"
Gohan looked up with wide brown eyes, curious but at the same time, knowing. This place. There was nothing good to be had here.
Piccolo slowly let go of the half Saiyan's wrist, talons scraping slightly and Gohan felt it tingle. The Namek did that sometimes, always by accident and Gohan was sure that he didn't even realise. He would never say. Piccolo turned to look back, his cape hardly moving in the dead weight of the still air. The way back now looked as dark as their path ahead, the forest behind now settling into inky greens and deep browns. It was midday, but the sun had long since parted this place, if it had ever really existed at all. Gohan put a hand on Piccolo's shoulder, he hadn't seen his mentor this disturbed since he had found Cell in Ginger town. He nodded his head so that they could all continue together and Goku waited for the two of them to catch up.
"We should stay together"
At this point, it felt like their survival might depend on that. Piccolo could sense and hear nothing but the three of them. The plants, the shrubbery and the delicate roses were as dead as the soil they were walking on. He couldn't hear a rodent scurry or even an insect's rapid wing beat, nothing. For someone who heard everything, the contrast between that and the scene before him was unsettling, and disorienting. Ahead, the thorn walkway opened up and in the distance they could see the gentle glow of a light. Goku absolutely didn't want to go towards it, but they had no choice. Gohan thought they should make sure.
"Dad, i'm not sure coming here was the best idea"
Goku actually laughed but it was pretty humorless.
"You're telling me. But you heard Roshi, and Uranai Baba. This is our only option"
Piccolo knew it too but still he hoped Gohan's genius might think of an alternative. A part of him knew that they could be trapped here, but he didn't mention it. It was too late now. This was an in between, neither living nor dead, a plane in the middle of existing and not. He wasn't entirely sure how he had come to know this, but it was somewhere in his mind. His fusion with Kami often gave him answers, but with no explanation of how he came to know it.
Gohan creased his brow, he knew as well that they had little choice. King Kai had told them that a group of humans were planning to raise an old Demon, but that was all. Nothing else but a great chasm of non informative babble. Oh, there was one thing. They are looking for something, like a key, to its tomb. He couldn't tell us which humans or how to find them. Uranai baba had also been of little use, other than to first refuse to help before referring them to someone else; the seer. Whose location was everywhere and nowhere, and you had to be the right person in the place at the right time. She had said that Piccolo already knows this and disappeared in an infuriating puff.
They flew for days, camping and searching. Piccolo had felt the pressure, Gohan could see it, the weight of their survival leaning on a hunch about a mysterious entity that might not even be real. After Buu, he knew that his mentor had felt all but useless and their empty search was just reinforcing those feelings. He was a teacher now, and he saw the parallel in his students when faced with consecutive failure. Eventually, they had been flying over a forest and Piccolo just knew. He sensed it, like a distant beep that suddenly you can hear but up until now it had been white noise. The rose walkway had been there, dark and inviting at the same time, like the shortcut you know you shouldn't take.
The light soon revealed itself to be a lantern hung on a post. There was a mailbox next to it, oddly, though it looked very old. Goku, for some unbeknownst reason, opened it. Piccolo felt like punching the Saiyan in the head for his idiocy. Inside, the box was empty, save for a golden ball in the middle. He reached in, unable to resist, and pulled out the sphere. The Namek felt the breath in his throat stop moving. Goku's dark eyes glistened as the golden orb lit up his pupils and in the middle of its shiny surface, were eight stars. He stuttered.
"Is this...a dragonball? I mean, the eighth one?"
Piccolo seemed adamant in his reply although he was rapidly becoming unsure of himself.
"No, there are only seven"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure"
Goku continued to look down into it like it contained all the secrets of the universe. Gohan snatched it out of his father's hands with a huff and shoved it into the mailbox before slamming it closed.
"Don't touch anything else"
Goku pulled a face at Gohan's teacher tone and Piccolo, despite the situation, smirked.
Ahead of them, a little cottage stood, looking idyllic and surrounded by the dark forest. There windows were let with a gently, warm light but all Gohan could picture was zombies or ghosts or anything he feared as a child. Piccolo realised that the other two men had perhaps met the limit of their bravery and took the lead. This wasn't a fight, this was just weird and something told him that it was his fault they were here anyway, somehow. The soil still felt dead underfoot but the grass looked vibrant and crunched under their weight. Goku was whispering as he spoke.
"This looks kinda nice actually"
Piccolo rolled his eyes.
"Not all hell's are fire and brimstone"
The cottage walls looked well kept and as Gohan looked up, the thatched roof sat in good repair. Odd, I never thought an evil creature might be house proud. All three of them reached the door and awkwardly, Piccolo tried to knock on the door like a human, which made Gohan bite his lip in amusement. A few seconds went by and Piccolo could hear Goku's and Gohan's heart thud in anticipation, and maybe his own. Still, the silence just continued.
Then there was movement. Creaking wood echoed in the still and Gohan swallowed. The door handle screamed in protest through years of disuse and rust flake fell to the floor. The door opened and all three fighters were immediately ready to attack, or be attacked.
A girl stood there. Goku, Gohan and Piccolo looked at eachother. Not just a girl, but she looked like a human girl. Piccolo frowned. This was no human, it was just a wolf wearing human skin. Her blue eyes looked up, but they weren't bright or like the ocean, they were empty glaciers. He thought maybe...she looked familiar. Her skin was pale, with a few freckles dotted in an odd way. Long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but it didn't shine. She just stared. Gohan cleared his throat.
"Um...hi! I'm Gohan, this is my dad, Goku and this is Piccolo"
He stuck his hand out to shake hers and she simply looked at that too. After a moment, she stood back slightly to let them in. Goku and Gohan nervously squeezed by her whilst Piccolo removed his cape and turban, knowing that such items were not practical inside this tiny cottage or the tiny gap she had left for them. He would shove her out of the way but he wasn't sure if it was worth the wolf coming out to play. He ducked his head to get through the doorway and she moved a little bit more to accommodate his size. Those cold eyes gave him a lingering gaze as he moved by and it made his skin want to turn inside out.
Gohan and Goku were stood in what must be a living room. It was old, but looked comfortable. The fire raged in the fireplace but Gohan noticed that there was no real heat. But as soon as he thought it, he felt a wall of heat move through the room. Oh, she must be telepathic.
"Please, sit down"
Her voice was low, a kind of soothing tone. In fact it was odd, compared to the cold countenance it came from.
Gohan and Goku sat down and the gestured for Piccolo to join them on the sofa. He scowled but obliged, if only to please the creature and get out of here as quick as possible. His knees came up high as he tried to sit on the small sofa. Gohan smiled, he had seen this particular trial before and knew that eventually Piccolo would just cross his legs in defeat. Goku cut to the chase.
"Are you the Seer?"
She stood, probably as tall as Gohan but thin, without much definition. A long cloak that looked a thousand years old touched the floor.
"You'd hope so"
He laughed, hand going behind his head.
"Yeah...I guess we do. And I figure that you know why we're here too?"
She hummed and sat down herself in the solitary chair. It looked like it might have had a checked pattern once. Her legs were long and thin. Gohan's curiosity was too much to bare.
"Are you human?"
She looked directly at him, it was uncomfortable.
"I was"
"Oh" he looked around "when?"
Her eyes actually widened then, and Piccolo wondered if it had been such a long time since anyone asked her anything other than a stupid question. Did anyone actually come here? Those eyes made him feel something inside, but it was too deep to know what. It wasn't his own feeling, it was from an old memory.
"I don't know"
Gohan offered her a half smile and thought, but didn't say. That long?
Piccolo's patience was waning, and his comfort zone hd been left back at his waterfall, if he didn't intervene, Gohan would ask a thousand more questions.
"If you know why we're here, why don't you just give us what we want? Where is the key?"
For the first time, something that might have been a smile, creased her lips.
"What's the rush?"
Those words. Those words struck him so deeply it almost physically hurt. He had heard her say that before. She had been more lively then. He narrowed his own dark eyes.
"Who are you?"
Her face went back to the dead look she liked so much. Or rather, the empty look. Gohan thought that maybe she was fed up now.
"I am the Seer"
"How do you know me?"
"I don't"
Piccolo creased his brow, she didn't look like she was lying. Then again, who knew what someone like this looked like when they lied.
"Then why I do know you?"
She leaned back into her chair, and dust came from it in pillowing puffs. It made Gohan want to stop breathing.
"You don't"
She felt Piccolo's response coming and continued instead.
"Your Sire did"
That stopped him, his jade lips closed and he swallowed whatever torrent he had prepared. He did know her, now that she had said it he could feel long lost memories bubbling away just beneath the surface. King Piccolo finding the Seer, keeping her in the tower for a long time, an age. She had fought him, even with supernatural powers but to little avail. Is that how he kept his reign?
Goku seemed confused now.
"You knew King Piccolo?" He didn't remember any Seer.
"It was a long time ago, a long time before you"
Goku realised that she must be talking about before he was imprisoned in the rice cooker. Piccolo was still sitting silently, any trust he might have had was now very much in the sub zero zone. His voice boomed in the tiny house.
"Enough! Where's the key?"
She looked at him with a little familiarity in her gaze.
"You look like him though...I think he was a little taller"
Piccolo remembered then, the Seer looking up at him. Her blue eyes had life then, there was laughter in them. The sky was a heavy grey and red around her and the castle under their feet was made with crumbling black brick. It was towards the end. He looked down at her and he felt something, a feeling deep in his chest. He had no idea what it was at the time and he had no idea now. But as he looked at her now, lifeless eyes and dead stare, he couldn't help but wonder what happened.
Gohan tried to get somewhere with the conversation.
"So...this Demon that the humans want to raise. Do you know who's trying to do it or where the key is? Have you had...Oh, um, a vision?"
"I know what will happen, if that's what you mean, it's already happened. It's all the same to me"
Goku scratched his head. Gohan nodded though, he learned quick.
"To you it's like it's already happened? So, you knew we would come here?"
The Seer nodded.
"And you know if we will succeed or not?"
She hummed her agreement. He looked to Piccolo and Goku before asking.
"Will we?"
The Seer did that somewhat smile again and in the light of the fire Gohan could see that she was young, but she was ancient. Like her skin wouldn't grow old and wrinkle but it had aged, in its own way. The freckles were the spots of age on her thick pale skin. Her eyes were too old to have any glow, as if even the indestructible decays eventually. But as he looked, there was a youth about her. She must have been so young when this happened, maybe her mind stayed the same.
"I can't tell you that"
Piccolo had calmed down slightly, though not by much.
"What does it matter if we can't change it?"
"Ah, there can be exceptions"
Goku sensed that this was going nowhere so for a third or fourth time, tried again.
"So, do you know where the key is?..."
The Seer leaned forward.
"Of course"
"So...where is it?"
This conversation was even annoying him, and that was difficult to do.
"I will tell you, on one condition"
He looked at Piccolo and the Namek intervened then.
"What condition?"
"You must agree first, and...you must also know that an agreement made here is an unbreakable one." Piccolo knew that this is not like their world where promises can be broken. Goku's voice was hesitent.
"Well, I don't know...without knowing what the condition is"
Piccolo remained quiet, Goku was right. Gohan decided to talk to her some more, maybe to gain more of her trust.
"Do you have a name?"
"Oh, I imagine so. I don't remember"
Piccolo was twisting internally in irritance and disbelief. Every fibre of his being told him to not cooperate with this creature, under any circumstance. But elsewhere, his mind brought him back to the memory of her standing next to him, she didn't have a name then either. Her cloak brushed the floor as it did now, black hair was tied back and her eyes, glittering like the sea. So young and full of the future. Her hand went to his wrist and he looked down at it in scorn and disbelief but for some reason King Piccolo didn't let go. She had said something to him but he couldn't remember.
Gohan's smile had a sadness at the edges. This girl could be an older version of Pan, who doesn't know her name or how old she is or anything, anymore.
"Who did this to you?"
She glanced down and then up, and she looked at Piccolo.
"I don't remember"
Gohan saw it, the answer was written in her eyes. King Piccolo did this to her. Piccolo seemed to realise this as well, and a horrible realisation dawned on him. She was stood in the centre of the village square, it was so rare for him to find a human who didn't cower in his presence. And now here was the human girl, born with foresight. Bright blue eyes shone in defiance even in the blood bath she was standing in. She had been pale then too, and wearing the cloak, only this time the edges were sitting in blood.
He hadn't made her a Seer, but he had found her and made her immortal. To use forever.
Piccolo closed his eyes in a sinking sadness.
"I...he did this to you. He found you, in your village, and made you immortal"
She just looked at him, she might not have cared anymore.
"Will you agree to my condition?"
Piccolo answered.
"No"
Her pale features flickered. Gohan, confused as well, asked why.
"We don't? Why not?"
Piccolo turned his dark red eyes on the Seer then, but this time he stood up, distantly thankful to be out of the peculiar position. He walked up to her and she stood up in response. He knew she would. That little girl who stood up to him once a long time ago, amongst the dead, she was in there somewhere.
"What does the key do?"
Her eyes had something then, a fraction of the fire that they might have had once.
"It kills the Demon"
"Then why are the humans trying to find it? Does it release it or kill it?"
"Well, both"
He rampaged through his own mind for answers. Any memory of the Seer that was not shattered by time. She was stood, her skin mottled with bruises from captivity, in awe at the great dragon that hung in the sky like one of the Gods. he looked at her and smirked, he remembered that. He wished her immortal, but there was a condition. Making a Seer immortal was not as easy as expected. She could live forever, but she could be killed. That was the deal. That's it, the key.
"It's the eight dragon ball isn't it"
She didn't falter, willing him to get it right or wrong, whatever will be will be.
"It's the key, to release you from this place, or kill you"
She smiled, it wasn't genuine, but it was like the shadow of one. Goku scoffed.
"You're the demon?!"
She bowed then. Piccolo felt that sadness return when he realised what all this was about.
"The humans are close aren't they?"
"Yes, their magic gets stronger every year"
"So you asked Uranai Baba to send us here...and get the key. And destroy it"
Gohan frowned, looking at each one of them before standing up himself.
"What? We can just release you! You'll be free!"
She shook her head, dull hair swaying as she did.
"I will never be free Gohan, and that's alright"
"But...you'll die." He was struggling. Here was this human girl, who looked so much like Pan, who wants them to agree to kill her. And this is why you wouldn't tell us until we agreed. In case we worked it out. Didn't you see this coming too?
"You're a sweet boy"
Piccolo's heart clenched, bruising in his chest. He went outside to retrieve the dragon ball. Goku was stood stock still, in sympathy and not knowing what else to do. Gohan kept up his pleas, his soul just couldn't accept it.
"Give it a try first? Life again?"
She put a hand on his arm and a part of him registered how cold she was. She was right, maybe there was no life left in her.
"This is a shell Gohan, my body might be immortal, but my soul died a long time ago." She didn't say the rest, but Gohan heard it anyway. The day he made me a monster.
She pulled her cloak close as if to look presentable.
"We just weren't meant to last"
Piccolo returned with the eighth dragon ball and placed it on the old pine table. Gohan stood by his father and Goku put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. She had been waiting this long, Piccolo knew, because he was the only one who could destroy it. That was the deal.
He looked up from the dragon ball, with a gentle sorrow in his eyes. He thought that he saw something in hers.
"Thank you"
She smiled so truly that it brought back his final memory of her.
She was stood, her hand on his wrist and she was talking. Her youth was ebbing away now and even though she looked the same, he could still see it. It was nearly the end, though he didn't know it yet. She did of course, she knew everything.
"Even your kingdom, one day will fall"
"Silence! It certainly shall not."
She's laughing. He hates it, but he doesn't mind.
"It shall! And you, my King, will become more than you are"
She had grown cheeky over the age she had spent with him. He mostly ignores her now.
"And one day i'll finally die. I saw it today." She smiled, like she was looking forward to it.
"Pah! Why would you want such a thing. I have given you immortality!"
"Piccolo"
He looked at her with smoldering black red eyes. No one called him that.
"Did you really want to live forever?"
He didn't know the answer to that, he just didn't want to be defeated. He already knew her answer.
"I didn't."
He felt it, buried so deep it could be in his bones. Remorse. The first and only time he felt it.
He looked at her tiny pale hand on his wrist and he thought about the life he had taken from her. And in a moment, the thought was gone. He shrugged her hand off and left her standing on the rooftop. He could hear her cloak fluttering in the wind and the crumbling rock as he left. It was the last time he saw her.
Until now.
He smashed the dragon ball with his right fist. She was gone when he looked up.
Finish.